Method and machine for producing coiled wire bunches



June 21, 1938.

s. L. MASON METHOD AND MACHINE FOR PRODUCING COILED WIRE BUNCHES 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed March 10, 19:54

INVENTOR 60Ra L. MA 501v 9 ATTORN EYS I G. L.. MASON METHOD AND MACHINE FOR PRODUCING COILED WIRE BUNCHES 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed March 10, 1954 INVENTOR 6501205 LM/isolv Y B W 9 M AT ORNEYS Patented June 21, 1938 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE METHOD AND MACHINE For. raonuomc. comm .wma mmcrms George L. Mason, Warehouse Point, Conn., as-

signor to Springfield Wire & Tinsel 00., West Springfield, Mass., a corporation of Massachusetts Application March 10, 1934, Serial No. 714,899

13 Claims.

ing on the same broad coiling principle as the present one.

The improved method consists in coiling one or more metallic wire strands, preferably flattened. into helical form and then winding the coiled Wire into skein form under a tension sufficient to keep the coils stretched out. As the skein is formed the coils interlac'e, and when it is taken off the winding reel the coiled wire contracts so that the coils interlock and at the same time the skein as a whole contracts into the hand-size bunch which is desired for the final product.

The manner in which this is accomplished will appear from the description below.

The improved machine utilizes the well known principle that a wire under tension when pulled over the edge of a knife blade or a fairly sharp corner will be given a tendency to coil into coils and will do so when the tension is released. Machines operating on this principle have heretofore been known and used. My improved machine as compared to prior art machineshas the advantage in the new and useful details of arrangement, construction, and mode of operation. These features will be apparent from a disclosure of the new machine in its preferred form and from the claims pointing out the improvements.

Referring to the drawings- Fig. 1.is an end view-of the left-hand half of the assembled machine; the other half would normally show at the right-hand: side of line H, but is omitted because its parts are a mere duplication of those shown;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary top view of the 'machine of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a fragmentary side view looking from the left of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is an enlargement of a small portion of Fig. 2; v I

Fig. 5 is a section on line 5--5 of Fig. 4; Fig. 6 is a view looking from the left of Fig. 5; Fig.- '7 is an enlargement of a small portion of Fig. 2; and

Fig. 8 is an end view of the complete machine. The machine shown is what may be termed a "gang machine, in that exactly the same operations are carried on at a large number of 56 slightly separated places in the same frame. In

this respect it is like a spinning frame. A description of the general arrangement of the machine will first be given.

Referring to Fig. 8, there are two sides to the machine, each a substantial duplicate of the 5 other. The details of these sides are best shown in Figs; 1 and 2 and will be later described. The general arrangement includes the drive shaft I for the left-hand side and the shaft I for the right-hand side, the latter being driven from the former. Shafts I and I are belt connected to shafts below (I2 and I2 respectively), which in turn are belt connected to drive the series of wind-up reels conveniently located below the drive shafts, so that the speed of the wind-up reels will have a fixed timed relation to the speed of the coiling mechanisms driven by shafts I and I, as indicated. With this generally duplicated arrangement on each side of the machine, the specific arrangement of the detail series of coiling mechanisms and their mode of operation will be best understood from the enlarged views of Figs. 1 to 6. I

' The drive shaft I (Fig. l) is driven by a-pulley 2 on the far end of the shaft which is beltedto a motor. This drive shaft I has keyed thereon a plurality of rubber faced rolls 3 arranged in spaced relation from one end of the machine to the other, see Fig. 2. The right-hand side of the machine is just the same, only the parts thereare reversely arranged just as if the parts of Fig. 1 were turned around and slightly spaced from the central plane a-a of the machine from the parts shown to form the other side of the machine.

Each roll 3 is provided with acompanion roll 4 that is also faced with rubber. The rubber faces of rolls 3 and 4 are of the same density. Each roll 4 is mounted independently in bearings at the forked ends of an arm 5. Each arm 5 is pivoted independently as at 6 to the frame. Its handle portion 1 extends outwardly at the side edge of the frame. A rod 8 on handle 1 extends upwardly through the frame and has an adjustable collar with a spring between it and the frame, to urge handle I upwardly and roll 4 into frictional driving contact with its companion roll 3. When handle I is pressed downwardly'b'y the attendant, roll 4 is moved away from roll 3. Any one of the rolls 4 can be-separated from its companion roll 3 by pressing down on its handlewithout dis-' turbing the frictional engagement of any other pair of rolls. 1 1

A series of wind-up reels I I, made up with arms 3, are mounted in the frame below the rolls 3 and 4. For each two sets of rolls 3 and 4, one windup reel ii is provided. The number of wind-up reels in the whole machine is one-half the number of pairs of rolls 3 and 4. Each reel has a pulley l driven by a belt from shaft l2. latter is driven by belt connection II from drive shaft L r I A common curling rod in the form of a small round wire [4 is mounted horizontally at the top of the machine, see Fig. 2. It extends from one end of the machine to the other and immediately above the pairs of rolls 3 and 4. It is supported in position from an upwardly extending bracket arm I5 at each end of the machine, by means of a horizontal holder l6 bolted to these arms.

A longitudinal slot N (Fig. 5) divides the upper edge of the holder IS. The wire rod l4 rests on the bottom I! of this slot l'l, best shown in Figs. 5 and 6. Wire rod i4 is held in extended position along the bottom I8 of the slot l1 and is clamped against each end of its holder l8 by a screw and washer, as shown at the bottom of Fig. 7.

Guide or cross slots l9 (see Fig. 6) are cut across the upper edge of holder Hi. There are three slots i9 provided immediately above each pair of rolls 3 and 4. Any one of these cross slots is may be used to guide material to the bite of the rolls below them. Cross slots I! are much deeper than the longitudinal slot i'l, extending well below its bottom it, as is clear from Fig. 6.

The curling rod i4 is supported in slot i'l throughout its length except where it bridges slots i9, forming at each of these slots a short curling pin over which the wire to be curled .is drawn.

A1 spool holder 20 (Figs. 1 and 2) is mounted on the frame back of the series of rolls 3 and 4. A rigid spindle 2| is-mounted on this holder and in position for its spool to unwind'in line with each pair of rolls, one spool for each pair of rolls. The holder 20 and spindles 2| are set in inclined position. And a spool of wire 22 is placed on. each spindle.

Each spool 22 has its bottom in flat frictional contact with its holder 20, and the holder is faced with canvas strips for this contact. Rigid spindle 2| also has frictional contact with the interior surface of the spool hole. The weight of the spool 22 against its stationary holder provides a drag on the spool's rotation whenever the wire is pulled off the spool.

Before starting the operation of the machine, supply spools 22 are placed on spindles 2|, so as to rest on spool holder 20. Each spool is filled with a supply of flat wire w. This wire is carried from the spool directly to and through a guide slot is (Fig. 5), bent over the curling pin formed by the portion of the wire l4, suspended across that slot, and down to a pair of rolls 3 and 4. The spool, its set of guide slots I9, and its pair of rolls 3 and 4 are all in substantially the same vertical plane. Roll 4 is moved out of contact with roll 3 temporarily, by pressing down on handle I to permit easy passing of the flat wire between the rolls. Two strands of flat wire are carried, one fr0m each of two adjacent pairs of rolls 3 and 4, and tied on an arm 8 of a single wind-up reel ll below the rolls, see Fig. 3. When the flat wire from the desired number of spools is threaded to the machine in this manner, the power is turned on.

In operation theflatwire w is pulled upwardly 1 from its supply spool directly to thecurling pin portion M. It is pulled downwardly around the The- 3 and 1.

sion is released. As will appear from Fig.

-This helps to mat curling pin, where it changes direction, and goes directly to the bite of and is fed between rolls 3 and 4. In this pulling of the wire by rolls 3 and 4 from the spool 22, a frictional drag against the rotation of the spool is setup at the spool .holder. This drag tensions the wire w between its supply on the spool and the bite of the rolls 3 and 4. The effect of this movement under tension and with a change of direction, over the curling pin, is to give the wirea tendency to curl into coils. But the tension between the rolls 3 and 4 and the spool 22 is always sufiicient to prevent any actual curling of the wire above rolls The reel ii is rotated to take up the treated wire and wind it into skein form or loops. The peripheral speed of the reel arms 9 is arranged to wind up the treated wire under tension, but this wind-up tension is not sufficient to prevent curling of the wire below rolls 3 and 4, as indicated in Figs. 1 and 3. It does curl into helical coils between the rolls and the reel. The windup tension is suiiicient, however, to keep the helical coils stretched out. In this tensioned condition two strands of the coiled wire are wound into adjacent loops until enough is wound to make up a single skein for a desired handful of coiled wire. The coils of each wire are opened up enough to overlap in adjacent loops so that they will interlock better when the winding ten- 3, the arms 9 are located a substantial distance from the axis of the reel, so that when the reel is filled the thickness of material wound in skein form is relatively'thin. This presents the advantage, pointed out more in detail below, that there is not any great difference between the stretch given to the inner and outer turns. The skein will thus contract about equally throughout. Fig. 3 illustrates clearly the relative thinness to which the body of the skein is wound, the distance between the outer surfaces of the arms 9 and the circumference of the circular head of the reel attendant uses a pair of hand scissors to cut the wire below the rolls 3 and 4 and above the reel l I. He then grasps the skein that is tensioned on reel arms 9 and pulls it off the ends of the arms. The release of the tensioned skein results in its contraction. The skein pulls into a smaller compass or body than that in which it is wound. the coils in the bunch, with these coils for the most part interlocked, due to the winding tension which held them slightly stretched for interlocking purposes. After removing one bunch of coils from a reel ii, the attendant ties the loose ends of a pair of wires w extending from the two sets of rolls 3 and 4 to the empty reel of that set for the machine winding of another bunch.

It is not necessary to stop the machine to empty the reels II by hand, or to replace an empty spool 22 with a full one, or to thread the flat wire through the machine from spool to reel. r But it is necessary for the attendant to watch for the time when each reel needs emptying. It does need emptying many times before its supply spool is empty. And the attendant is depended upon to intermittently cut off by hand scissors, from the machine operation as the latter is carried on, the right amount for each of the bunch units producedfrom any and every spool on the machine. v

The coiling machine consists in a series of coiling and skein winding devices arranged on a common frame with a common driving mechanism. Each coiling and skein winding device is a duplicate of that shown in the drawings. In the machine that I have built for use there are fifty combined coiling and skein winding devices (two coiling elements and one winding element in each device), all coordinated with a common drive and operated by common attendants. The machine as shown is plannedto make up bunches of coiled wire for use as pads of' abradant material in cleaning kitchen utensils and other scouring purposes.

p The arrangement of the plurality of coiling and reelingmechanisms and accessory devices, all in the manner shown and described, enables one to get a very large production from the one machine. With this machine a single attendant can service the large volume of production with great convenience. By putting a counter on shaft I the attendant can arrange the production so that he can take off the bunches formed on the reels when they are of the right weight and without stopping the machine. If he starts at one end to do this work, starting a new bunch as he. takes oiT the finished one, he will get the machine in step with his take-off operations. As he takes a bunch ofi the reel he can hang it on the adjacent handle I and quickly service the machine from one end to the other. The whole operation is under his easy inspection at all times so if anything starts to go wrong he can quickly correct it. For example, he sees whether the wire is coiling properly as it travels from rolls 3 and t to the reel. If it is not, it may be due to lack of tension. He can put an annular weight on the spool spindle to compensate for the loss of weight in the spool as it empties and correct the defect. If.any wire breaks and whenever a hunch is cut off, it is exceedingly easy to thread the wire through the machine. All the attendant has to do is press down on handle l and everything is open for the threading operation without the least danger to the operator.

One of the reasons that a wire coiling machine operating on the curling edge principle is liable to turn out defective work is due to the wear of the wire against the stationary curling edge. This wearing away of the curling edge changes the character of the coils and ordinarily causes considerable expense in refinishing the edge. I have made a special and improved curling edge arrangement. The single wire It is used as the curling edge for all the wire from the spools on one side of the machine. The wire from each spool may be applied for curling on any one of the three portions of wire N that straddle-the three slots IS in front of each spool, see Figs. 5

and 6. When wire it is finally worn in all three portions so that it no longer gives good curling, the worn wire, which is inexpensive, can be thrown away and anew one readily inserted in the holder 'l6.- This construction with the easily renewable wire l4 as the curling edge saves a lot of expense.

The arrangement shown of curling the wire under tension, partially releasing the tension to permit the coils to form and reeling up the wire into tensioned skeins, gives an advantagein production. For example, bunches of coiled wire are wanted in which the coils are effectively interlocked and matted together to retain the 1 ing use.

bunched form. Where the mode of operation is as I have described it, with a properly fixed time relation between the driving means for the coiling mechanism and the driving means for the wind-up reels, the tension on the coils is only partially released and the loops are wound with the coils opened up enough to overlap with ad-' jacent coils. The bunch is formed in this way and then when the bunch is taken off the reel, the rest of the tension is released, whereupon the coils all act under the tendency to come closer together or close .up. This action has the effect of trapping overlapping coils in that position which gives an improved mat of tangled coils in the bunch.

It will be noted that by winding'the tensioned curled strand into skein form and then permita desirable to permit some stretching of the bunch to assist in cleaning it after use without causing any looseness in any part of the wound strand. If the required amount of curled strand were wound directly into the form of a hand-size bunch there would be a very material difierence between the radius and therefore the circumference of the inner and outer turns, and thus a large difference in the tensions imparted to these turns would result unless a complicated variable speed drive were used. Any such large difference in tension would have undesirable eiT-ects. The inner turns being under a lesser tension than is desirable (unless the outer turns were stretched so much that their curls were largely straightened out), there would be a less firminterlocking of the curls and a tendency for these inner turns to become separated from the bunch dur- This would be particularly noticeable if the bunch were stretched out for cleaning. There would also be a less firm interlocking of the'outer strands on account of their being held stretched by the bunbh and not being permitted to spring back into their natural condition with the curls closely spaced.

These difficulties are avoided, and an improved bunch obtained, by winding the bunch initially in skein form and then permitting it to contract into the desired size. The skein being of a relatively large diameter has a fewer number of turns to accommodate the amount of material necessary to make the bunch, and there will be comparatively slight difference inradius and therefore in circumference between the inner and the outer turns. By the use of a very simple wind-up driven in timed relation to the delivery of the curled strand the strand can be tensioned substantially uniformly throughout its' length and a. substantially uniform spring-back allowed to all of the turns. Where the bunch is wound initially in substantially its final size there tension togive it a tendency to curl and then released to form coils, the combination of an aligned series of separate curling mechanisms, a common curling edge in the form of a small wire over spaced portions of which the separate mechanisms draw wire to be treated under tension, a holder for supporting the curling edge wire in rigid position adjacent each of its spaced portions used for curling, and meansto removably hold said wire in the holder.

2. The combination of claim 1 and said holder constructed with a longitudinal slot in which the curling edge wire is held on'the bottom and transverse slots deeper than the longitudinal slot arranged tosuspend the curling edge wire at its spaced portions used for contact of the wire to be curled.

3. In a wiring curling machine of the kind described, a curling edge, drawing rolls to dra wire under tension over the curling edge, a wind-up reel and means to drive the drawin rolls and wind-up reel at such relative speed as to partially release the wire tension between the rolls and reel to form coils that still have tension to keep them further apart than they otherwise would be and to wind the coiled wire in this condition.

4. In a wire curling machine of the kind de-.

scribed, a curling edge means, drawing rolls to drag a pair of wires under tension over said means, a single reel to receive the pair of wires and wind them up as a bunch of adjacent loops and means to drive the drawing rolls and reel at such relative speed as to partially release the wire tension between the rolls and reel to form coils that still have tension to keep them further apart than they otherwise would be after the curling edge operation and to wind the pair 'of coiled wires in the same bunch under these conditions whereby when the bunch .is taken from the reel they mat more firmly together.

5. In a wire curling machine, a frame having a drive shaft adjacent one top side, a series of rolls thereon, a second series of rolls spring mounted to press into contact with the first series and form a series of pairs of drawing rolls along one top side of the machine, curling edge means located slightly above said series to serve said pairs of rolls, an inclined spool holder in back oi said rolls having an inclined spindle for each pair of rolls, the rolls, curling edge means and spool holder being arranged in triangular relation whereby wire may be fed for curling from spools on the holder over a sharp angle at the curling edge and drawn by said rolls all in short easily reached paths at the top side of the machine. g

6. In a wire coiling machine a frame, a'pair of drawing rolls mounted at the top side edge, a driving shaft holding one roll parallel to said edge, a lever pivoted on the frame and having end bearings to hold the other roll, a spring normally pressing the latter roll into contact 'with the drive roll and with the roll axes in substantially the same horizontal plane so the bight of the rolls isin substantially a vertical plane, said spring pressed roll being on the outer side and its lever forming a handle sticking out from the side of the machine to separate the rolls when desired, a curling edge means mounted in substantially the same vertical plane as the bight of the rolls-and slightly above the latter, a spool holder for a wire spool to feed directly to and over the'curling edge to the bight of the rolls making a sharp angle over said edge, said spool wind-up reels, means holder being located on the frame a slight distance back of the drive roll, the rolls, curling edge and spool holder all located atthe top side of the frame within reach of an attendant without change of position.

'7. The combination of claim reel driven in timed relation to the drive rolls, said reel being located slightly below the drive rolls and being also in reach of the attendant without changing his position for reaching the other elements of the combination.

8. The combination of claim 6 and a series ofsimilarly mounted rolls spaced along the top edge of the frame, all having a common curling edge means and spool holder for spools to serve the rolls.

9. The combination in a wire coiling machine of the kind described, a rectangular table frame, sub-frames oneoverhanging each side edge of the main frame, each said sub-frame having mounted on its top side at each of many slightly spaced stations a pair of wire drawing or tensioning' rolls, one of which is readily moved out of contact with the other and forming their bight in a vertical plane, a common curling edge means mounted in said vertical plane and extending transversely and slightly above the bight 6 and a wind-up v of allof said rolls on the sub-frame, aspool to the speed of the drawing rolls so that the wire being coiled will be wound up at less tension than that required to curl it by said curling means.

11. Thecombination in a wire coiling machine of an aligned series of wire coiling mechanisms for coiling a series of separate strands, a common driving means for said mechanisms, a series of wind-up reels arranged to form separate bunches of coiled wire as delivered from the coiling mechanisms, a common drive means for the to maintain a fixed timed relation between the speeds of said two common driving means whereby the reels will hold the coils of the strands under tension and spaced far enough apart in the wind-up operations to help interlock the coils in the bunches when the latter are taken off the reels andtheir wind-up tension is released in such bunches.

12. The method of forming a flexible and resilient hand-sized bunch from a coreless helically curled metallic strand, which comprises supplying the curled strand at a substantially steady rate, winding the curled strand at asubstantially constant rotative speed into the form of a skein of suiilcient diameter to contain the material for a hand-sized bunch without substantial difference in tension between the inside and outside turns, maintaining the curledstrand during winding under a tension sufficient to hold its curls opened out so that the curls in adjacent layers and turns will interengage when wound and when the skein is released will inter-' lock to unite the skein into an integrated whole, the tension with which the skein is wound being sufllcient to cause the skein as a whole when released to contract into a'hand-sized bunch with the central opening. of the skein substantially closed, and releasing the skein from tension to permit the formation of a. hand-sized bunch by contraction of the skein as a whole.

13. A machine for forming a flexible and resilient hand-sized bunch from a coreless helically curled metallic strand, which comprises a wire curlin device supplying curled wire at a substantially steady rate, a reel with one and free for removal of a skein therefrom and of suflicient diameter to contain the material for a hand-sized bunch without substantial difference \Qw circumference 'between the inside and outside turns, means for rotating the reelat a substantially constant rotative speedso related to the speed with which the strand is supplied as-to impart to the curled strand a substantially constant tension suflicient to hold its curls GEORGE L. MASON. 15 

